Italy has launched a new incentive program to encourage the local generation and sharing of renewable power. Two kinds of prosumers would be the beneficiaries of the incentive program: energy communities and self-consumption collectives.

According to the Italian Gazette, ‘self-consumption collectives’ are groups of consumers that are residing in the same building or complex. Meanwhile, energy communities are far larger entities, including businesses or public organizations/institutes near power generation.

These prosumers will get a special 20-year tariff of €0.10 (~$0.12)/kWh in case of self-consumption collectives and €0.11 (~$0.13)/kWh for energy communities. The incentive calculation is based on power generated by the project and technologies used along with the quantity of electricity fed into the grid.

The special tariff will be paid by the government agency Gestore dei Servizi Energetic (GSE S.p.A.).

The program is only available to renewable energy projects that do not exceed 200 kW in capacity and where surplus power can be returned to the grid without any remuneration. The idea behind the incentive is to encourage the use of storage batteries in the country.

Meanwhile, the electricity for self-consumption won’t be charged, but this category won’t receive any direct incentive. As per the gazette, the participants for this incentive program are expected to be connected with the same low voltage transformer substation.

In the first half of 2020, Italy added 339 MW of new solar, wind, and hydroelectric installations, a dip of 39% compared to the same period in 2019. Solar and hydropower primarily drove the installations this year as wind suffered a setback. According to the RES Observatory, solar and hydroelectric saw 12% and 62% growth, respectively, while wind power fared poorly, falling 86% in 1H of 2020.

Italy is lagging behind its annual average installation target of 330 MW/month to secure its renewable energy objectives for 2030.

Meanwhile, Switzerland-based ABB announced that it had invested $30 million (~₹2.25 billion) to construct its new manufacturing facility in San Giovanni Valdarno, Italy.

Image credit: BE Solar